US pundits and the media outlets that listen to them are aghast at what Donald Trump is doing on China trade and the North Korea deal. He’s a moron! He’s getting played! More importantly, he’s not listening to us! One of the most surprising developments in the Trump administration is that after a year of […]

Boom! Trump’s China techwar takes out ZTE, as the major Chinese telecom equipment supplier is crushed by US penalties and closes its doors. Boom boom! Wut? Trump dumbfounds the US punditocracy by offering to walk those ZTE penalties back. The good news is there’s an explanation for the craziness. The bad news is that Trump’s […]

America’s got a three-war solution to the problem of U.S. decline in Asia: a trade war, a tech war, and maybe a shooting war. Now we’ve got trade war jaw jaw as the United States and the People’s Republic of China exchange demands. It’s a phony war for now: threats, posturing, media ops and, for […]

When America was dominant in Asia, American hegemony and Asian security were pretty much synonymous, not necessarily in a good way. By exercising its hegemonic power, the United States determined the content and direction of the Asian security debate. But now it’s the Great Decoupling! US pursuit of hegemony and Asia’s pursuit of security are […]

Will America end one war in Asia while starting another? Don’t count on it. There’s talk of a peace treaty on the Korean peninsula. But there are a lot of influential institutions like the Pentagon and influential countries like Japan that don’t appear very enthusiastic. And they are marshaling their forces to make sure Donald […]

Chinese supremo Xi Jinping laid out China’s vision for the international system at the Bo Ao conference on Hainan Island. And it sounds pretty good. Especially when contrasted with Donald Trump’s clumsy application of the America First! principle in his illegal bombing of Syria. The PRC probably wishes that Donald Trump could stay president of […]

We got a US-China trade War. Who needs win-win? Who even needs zero sum, you know, where one side wins and the other loses. Let’s go lose-lose! The China hawk rap is that China is a revisionist power bent on undermining the rules based international order. Well, what happens when Donald Trump undermines the rules […]

China hawks have been pushing for a simple, organizing narrative for Asia to follow: World versus China. But then confusing stuff comes along. Stuff like Kim Jong Un visiting Beijing. Stuff like India soft-pedaling the Tibet issue. We look at the Korean trend that’s freaking out American pundits: Asians doing Asian stuff about Asia while […]

In the space between what Winston Churchill called jaw-jaw that’s negotiation and war-war that’s war there’s the phony war. As the China war temperature drifts for cold war to hot, we get a dose of trade war posturing from the Trump administration and the Chinese. And as we go trade war, it looks like Qualcomm, […]

There is a superpower that is groaning under erratic one-man rule that tramples on state institutions and flouts the constitution and the rule of law. Unfortunately for China hawks, that country is not China. Donald J. Trump tried his hand at stopping China’s global telecom surge by quashing a big-ticket acquisition in the US telecoms […]

The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China revised the state constitution to remove term limits for the office of president of the PRC. This vote gives Xi Jinping the legal basis to become president for more than two terms and, possibly for life. The term limits affair also served as an excuse […]

Is Donald Trump working for Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin? As this crazy week winds on, that’s what the crazy people are starting to say…and what some sane people are starting to think. Trump isn’t following the China hawk playbook very closely, and the question of why he isn’t is starting to pop up. Is […]

This week on China Watch, the world cries “tyranny” as PRC moves to abolish term limits for Xi Jinping. China Watch says, Hmm. Term limits. Interesting. We look at how succession issues are handled in China. And point out that term limits have brought the United States to the brink of disaster. How ‘bout that? […]

It’s Chinese New Year and time for our special entertainment edition of China Watch. We document the atrocities at the CCTV New Year’s Gala! Racism! Outrage! And the back story on why China went blackface to show its love for Africa! Then we look at witch hunts against foreign influence. Do you know why witch […]

American diplomacy wipes out at the 2018 Winter Olympics! The Korean unified team is on parade as Mike Pence sits and stews. And American ignorance on parade as so-called experts struggle with the baffling hostility between Japan and South Korea! China Watch offers an exclusive look at the injustice at the heart of the Japan-South […]